The Jaded Africano Speaks

The story of Little Red Riding Hood. Such a nice, clean story. A bit scary, because of that big bad wolf, but then again, no one gets hurts, except for the nasty wolf. And it has a happy ending as well. A great story for kids.

Or so I thought.

I first read about it in Sandman, and I couldn’t believe it. I did a bit of research on the net, and found out that it was true. Little Red Riding Hood, as is the case with so many other happy fairy tales, has a dark and sinister past. Originally it was far more violent and it had a morbid ending. The wolf ate Grandma, and tricked Red into eating her flesh and drinking her blood. It forced her to strip and sleep with her naked. And then it ate her.

And then there is the question of interpreting the story. Today’s version can be thought of as a warning to kids. “Don’t trust strangers.” The original version is far more interesting.  Is the ‘wolf’ a reference to cunning, scheming men who seduce and trap young women? According to Charles Perrault, the Frenchman who was instrumental in giving the story it’s current form

There are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.

In various versions of the story the wolf is replaced by an ogre, or more excitingly, a werewolf.

The “Red” in Red Riding Hood is said allude to prostitution, the hymen, or the blood of the menstrual cycle — depending on which source you believe. Freud, for example,  would jump on the “attractive young girl going deep in the dark forest” part of the story and draw some very obvious conclusions from that.

There is a lot more to fairy tales than what meets the eye. I find this quite interesting, and would love to explore more.

A couple of interesting links, about Red Riding Hood.

• This page lists a several different versions of the story — http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html
• A “politically correct” version of the tale — http://philip.greenspun.com/zoo/red-riding-hood
• This seems to be a course on Fairy Tales — http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/fairytale.htm

And ofcourse, the Sandman pages that sparked this post. Enjoy.